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Most young Japanese eels have murky past … and even murkier future

More than half of the endangered young eels caught and sold are marked "origin unknown", and may be coming in from high-priced black markets that elude approved channels.

A 2008 file photo from a special event to highlight eel farming in Taiwan. Eel is largely a summer delicacy in Japan, where the snaky fish are thought to provide an energy boost against the hot, humid mid-year months. (Itsuo Inouye / AP)

A Japanese chef uses a fan to prepare grilled eels at an eel restaurant specializing in eels in this central Japanese city of Nagoya in this 2008 file photo. (AP / Kyodo News)

By The Japan News

Sat., Jan. 16, 2016

TOKYO—More than half of young Japanese eels captured in Japan are distributed in the market marked “origin unknown,” meaning it is not possible to know where they were caught or by whom, according to the Fisheries Agency and other sources.

The agency believes that these young eels come from a black market where they are traded at high prices in contrast to those moving through approved channels.

Japanese eels have been designated as an endangered species and are likely to become a target of trade regulations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), also known as the Washington Convention, to be held in autumn this year. It is urgently necessary to improve poor resource management.

The young eels are called shirasu-unagi and about 20,000 authorized people in 24 prefectures, including all prefectures in the Kyushu and Shikoku regions and some in the Kanto region and other areas, are allowed to collect them. (Yamaguchi Prefecture, where young eels are grown for research purposes, is not counted as one of the 24 prefectures.)

The fishing season is from December to around April of the following year. The collectors are required to report their catches to their prefectural governments. Collected young eels are purchased by growers via designated consolidators and wholesalers. Growers cultivate young eels for six months to about a year before shipping them.

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The agency calculates domestic catches by subtracting imported young eels from the total amount of young eels traded by domestic growers. This worked out to 15.3 tons in the 2015 fishing season from the end of 2014 to the spring in 2015. However, the total catch reported by collectors to prefectural governments was just 5.7 tons—a significant mismatch. This means the distribution routes of at least 60 per cent of young eels cannot be confirmed.

In fishing seasons from 2011 to 2014, distribution routes for more than 50 per cent of young eels were unknown. According to observers, after young eels are collected, they are traded without feeding them so that their weight remains unchanged until trading is over.

Young eels whose distribution routes are unknown are believed to have been distributed via nonregular routes by collectors who divert part of their catch. Because of this, the agency has notified each prefectural government that they must require collectors to report their main shipment destinations. The agency has also obliged growers to report the volume of young eels they use and their suppliers.

However, an official in charge at the agency said: “It’s difficult to grasp the actual situation of the complicated distribution routes, as multiple wholesalers are involved in trading in some cases.”

In some years with poor catches, Japan imports 50 per cent or more of its young eels from China and Hong Kong. If Japanese eels become a target of the Washington Convention, which restricts imports and exports of wild animals, it is feared that Japan would become unable to import young eels and eel distribution will decrease drastically.

Torami Murakami, chairman of the Alliance for Sustainable Eel Aquaculture, a general incorporated association that takes part in international conferences, expressed a sense of urgency, saying, “If Japanese eels become a target of the Washington Convention, the price of eels will soar further.”

Toshio Katsukawa, an associate professor at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, who is an expert on fishery resources, said that it would be difficult to get the understanding of the international community under the present circumstances of poor resource management.

“It’s crucial for the government to swiftly grasp the whole picture of the eel industry, including the reality of eel distribution, and lay down regulations that make it possible to trace the distribution routes of young eels,” he said.

•Shirasu-unagi

The young of Japanese eels, which were designated an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 2014. Each young eel measures about 6 centimetres long and weighs 0.2 gram. After they are spawned near the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, young eels gather around the mouths of rivers in Japan, China and other destinations that can be reached on the Kuroshio Current. Ninety-nine per cent of domestic eels are cultivated from captured young eels. In years with poor catches of young eels, their market price has been known to soar to about ¥2.5 million per kilogram (about 5,000 eels).

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